1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention relate to an image forming apparatus, and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus having a cleaning device to remove foreign substances attached to inner components.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus is an apparatus that prints an image onto a printable medium, such as paper, according to an inputted image signal. An electrophotographic type image forming apparatus is configured such that light is scanned to a photosensitive body charged with a predetermined electric potential so as to form an electrostatic latent image on an outer surface of the photosensitive body. The electrostatic latent image is developed into a toner image by supplying a toner to the electrostatic latent image, and the toner image is transferred and fused onto a printable medium.
An electrophotographic image forming apparatus generally includes a laser scanning device to form an electrostatic latent image on a photosensitive body. The laser scanning device includes a housing with a light transmitting member. Optical components, such as a light source, an optical deflector, an f-theta (fθ) lens, a mirror, and the like, are mounted inside the housing. The light emitted from the light source is deflected in a main scanning direction by the optical deflector, and is guided toward the light transmitting member mounted to the housing via the f-theta lens and the mirror. The light is scanned outside the housing through the light transmitting member.
If foreign substances in the image forming apparatus, such as paper dust or toner, are attached to the light transmitting member of the laser scanning device, the foreign substances partially interrupt the light scanned to the photosensitive body from the laser scanning device and disturb the formation of the electrostatic latent image, which causes deterioration of print quality.
To cope with this problem, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2004-341042 (“reference 1”) discloses a cleaning device of a laser scanning device to clean a light transmitting member (dustproof glass) by spraying compressed air supplied from an external source into the light transmitting member. Korean Patent Registration No. 0547137, published as KR 2005-20379 (“reference 2”) discloses a cleaning device of a laser scanning device to remove foreign substances attached to an outer surface of a light transmitting member by blowing air through a blower fan. However, the cleaning device disclosed in reference 1 is not practical because a user needs to perform a connecting work with a compressed air supply source provided separately whenever cleaning the light transmitting member. Further, the disclosed cleaning device gives a user inconvenience of participating in the cleaning work for the light transmitting member each time.
The cleaning device disclosed in reference 2 has an advantage of conveniently cleaning the light transmitting member using a blower fan. However, an additional driving source to drive the blower fan increases component costs. Further, when a space around the laser scanning device is small, there is a limitation in mounting the blower fan near the light transmitting member.